Iron Fist

Danny Rand is known to the public to be the well-meaning if somewhat clueless CEO of Rand Enterprises. He miraculously returned after being presumed dead for a decade. As he's a bit too fond of telling people, he is also the Immortal Iron Fist, protector of K'un L'un, but for some reason he's not there doing the protecting.

Biography

Danny Rand was born to a life of wealth and privilege. His father, Wendell Rand was the CEO of Rand Enterprises, a multi-billion dollar corporation. For the first twelve years of his life, he wanted for nothing and lived in the lap of luxury. He had no concept of what other people's lives were like. He was a kind child who had a good relationship with his parents. He has fond memories of scrambling around Rand headquarters like it was his own private playroom.
When he was 12 years old, he was travelling with his parents in a private jet. The jet crashed. HIs parents and the pilot were killed. Somehow, Danny survived. He was rescued by monks and brought to the mystical city of K'un L'un.
Danny grew up as an acolyte of the monks of K'un L'un. The way between the city and the wider world was closed, so he could not return home. Life in K'un L'un was anything but soft. The conditions were brutal and challenging. He worked for his meager rations and slept on a hard mat. When he wasn't working, he was training. It didn't matter if he didn't want to fight. He didn't have much of a choice.
Winning battles was rewarded with more advanced moves. After he started winning fights, it kindled some sort of inner Rand ambition - the same ambition that had driven his father. He started to get more and more competitive, working hard to best his fellow acolytes.
In K'un L'un there was no corporate ladder to climb, but there were titles. The one title that grabbed his attention was that of the Iron Fist - protector of the city. Despite the fact that his fellow acolytes believed an outsider to be unworthy, he attempted the trials anyway. It wasn't arrogance so much as an unconscious feeling of entitlement. He was driven to succeed, and in the mystical city, this was a way to succeed.
Despite all odds, Danny completed the trials of the Iron Fist. He found himself faced with a dragon - Shou-Lau the Undying. He plunged his fist into the creature's molten heart and gained the power of the Iron Fist - as well as the dragon's mark on his chest.
The title was earned, but what Danny didn't expect was that the title essentially meant…glorified sentry duty. It was his sacred duty to protect K'un L'un, which meant standing at the pass, day in and day out.
Another man would be humbled by this sacred duty. But Danny wanted more. If he had been at home and his parents had survived, he would be taking on some junior position in his father's company - a comfy recipient of nepotism. He still felt entitled to that kind of life on some level, but those ambitions didn't map onto the world he now inhabited. He grew restless with sentry duty nearly immediately, and impatient to learn more about his powers.
So in retrospect, the masters of K'un L'un should have expected that Danny would leave his post the moment he spotted a hawk and saw that the way was open. The duty he had fought for and almost died for, was abandoned very quickly. Even Danny himself didn't truly understand why he did it.
Danny returned to New York. A combination of a 12 year old's view of how the wider world should work and a certain…cluelessness meant his reintegration into society hit a lot of hiccups. Perhaps the same luck that had guarded him all his life clicked in yet again, because he was somehow able to convince the right people that he was who he said he was, and more astounding still, reclaim a controlling part of Rand Enterprises. Not until after a stint in a mental institution - for very understandable reasons.
Now Danny is in New York, having abandoned his sacred duty, and with the power of the Iron Fist. Is it fate that brought him back there? Is he meant to be there? Or is he simply a clueless young man who followed the wrong-headed direction of his heart?

Character Details

Danny Rand is a very good-hearted person. He believes in helping people and in doing the Right Thing (TM). Unfortunately, he lacks understanding to truly see the world as it is. Everything he has ever come across has a cut-and-dried solution in his mind. That often means him charging headlong and fighting, or trusting people to do the right thing when they have no incentive to do so. He believes in honour and justice, but as abstract concepts rather than how they actually manifest in the real world. Part of that is his isolated upbringing, and part of that comes from his life of privilege before the plane crash. It's hard for him to see inequality, for instance, because he hasn't experienced it. He doesn't deny it exists, but it doesn't enter into his world view until someone confronts him with it. The creedo of Danny's life can be summed up as: he means well, but he often falls short. To his credit, he does try to learn and he does try to listen, but he can also be pigheadedly stubborn when he believes what he's doing is right. Despite his viewing the world in absolutes, he doesn't even truly understand the motivations for why he's done some of the things he's done.

The Iron Fist
Danny gained the power of the Immortal Iron Fist by plunging his fist into the molten heart of Shou-Lau the Undying, a dragon. Which sounds ridiculous, which makes it baffling that Danny tells it to just about anyone who will stay still for five seconds. Functionally, what that means is that Danny can, by focusing his Chi, direct that energy into his fist. His fist then becomes incredibly hard (benchmark 8 strength), capable of striking with brute force (a ton and more) and without injury to him. He can hit so hard that it produces shockwaves that can knock down everything around him (including himself.) The power of the Iron Fist also gives him limited healing abilities, both on himself and on others. Through focus, he can heal bullet wounds, burn out poison and other minor acts of healing. He doesn't currently have a very good handle on this ability. These abilities are completely dependent on his state of mind. If Danny is confused or unsure of his purpose, or if he has lost confidence in himself, he finds summoning the power of the Iron Fist to be difficult or impossible. If he is injured or physically or emotionally weak, he will also find it difficult to summon. If he is well-rested and has clear purpose, he can sometimes ignite and release the power in close succession, but usually he needs at least a full 24 hours before he can summon its power again.
Martial Arts
Even the most skilled fighters in the world didn't have the kind of concentrated training that Danny underwent during his time in K'un L'un. The sheer immersiveness of his training gives him a fighting edge over others. He is a skilled fighter, but still lacking in discipline and focus that would lead to mastery. Still, a 'skilled' fighter in K'un L'un is more impressive out in the wider world. He can more than hold his own with the best fighters. He also meditates frequently, to centre and calm himself.
Reflexes Speed And Stamina
Thanks to his transformation into the Iron Fist, Danny is faster and has more endurance than an average human, He can recover quickly from blows and is able to read a fight and take on multiple opponents at once. Part of this is his extensive training, but part of it is certainly superhuman. Opponents that were his equal in K'un L'un before he became the Iron Fist, he now has a definite edge on.
Languages
Danny can speak Cantonese and Japanese with some degree of competency. Mandarin is the closest he comes to fluency, though it's with a terrible Western accent.

Privileged
Danny understands technology, he knows how to navigate New York. He knows what a crosswalk button is, and what a cop's job is. But he doesn't get politics, or racial tensions, or inequality or any of the other hundreds of issues that requires a nuanced approach and something other than a black and white view of the world. He may have had a rough time in K'un L'un, but he was born a rich little white boy, and it shows in his lack of perspective. He's always tries to treat others with respect and expects that the key to world peace is just being nice to one another. He hasn't yet learned that there's a lot more to the world than that, and things are a lot messier than good and evil.
The Opposite Of Subtle
Danny will blather on about where he came from and about being the Iron Fist to just about anyone. He doesn't seem to see the need for discretion or subtlety. He's also a public figure on top of that, as the miraculously not-dead heir to Rand Enterprises. Thankfully for all involved, the others at Rand managed to coach him into not telling the media he's the Immortal Iron Fist at least.
Kind Of An Idiot
Danny is good-hearted, well-meaning, heroic…and sometimes not very smart. Maybe it's because his understanding of the world outside of K'un L'un is stunted at the level of 12 year old rich boy, or maybe he's just a bit…derpy. Either way, he says and does things that cause a lot of side-eyes. He didn't realize, for instance, that people would react poorly to him walking into Rand Enterprises looking like a dirty hobo and expecting his family's company back. Usually his goodhearted nature and spark of innocence makes people tolerate him, but even after spending time in New York, he still does stuff that is pretty damned clueless. Not everyone is going to tolerate that.
Training Interrupted
Danny left K'un L'un before he could explore the true power of the Iron Fist. He doesn't know exactly what he can do, or how to control his power fully. It risks controlling him.
Buisness??
Danny has no earthly clue how to actually run a company or what his power actually entitles him to. That means it's fairly easy for those he trusts to take advantage of him, and to access his power by association.

Relationships

This version of Danny is from the MCU, but one that recognizes the flaws in the character.

This character has a new player as of September 2017.

RP Logs & Journals

September 17, 2017: My Fair Ninja

Rand Enterprises hires a specialist named Emery Papsworth to help young Danny Rand develop into the CEO butterfly they want him to be. Its not the introduction Danny is expecting. Emery gets a job, Danny gets compared to a homeless person…the start of a wonderful partnership.

(permalink: log:6257 | tags: iron_fist samael | posted: 18 Sep 2017 23:52)

February 06, 2017: Well, That Happened

Stilt-Man terrorizes Hell's Kitchen. Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, and Sofia Strange work together to stop him. Jessica winds up very arrested when it goes very wrong.

(permalink: log:5295 | tags: iron_fist jessica_jones luke_cage sorceress | posted: 08 Feb 2017 02:57)

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